How To DIY The Iconic Guerlain Météorites Illuminating Powder Compact

Most of the time, DIY beauty is far from luxurious. Sure, spreading egg whites on your face may soften your skin, but so does pretty much any facial lotion. If you can get the same effect with a real product, why bother? The answer: Because sometimes, putting in a little elbow grease pays off — literally.

Case in point: Redditor TheGoldenSmartie's make-at-home version of the beloved (and painfully expensive) Guerlain Météorites Illuminating Powder Compact, a color-correcting and oil-absorbing pressed powder that retails for $62 (and sister to the iconic Météorites Perles). As the DIY-er explained in a step-by-step post, recreating the high-end powder compact is actually surprisingly simple, and only requires a few color-correcting loose powders (she used E.L.F. Tone Correcting Powder in Cool), an empty compact, rubbing alcohol, and mixing bowls and spoons.

Here's how it's done: First, simply divide the loose powders into separate bowls and mix each with the alcohol until it gets to an "icing-like consistency," as TheGoldenSmartie suggests. Then, you scoop small dollops of each powder into the empty compact pan until the pan is slightly over-full, and cover with a paper towel to absorb the excess liquid. Finally, place a heavy object on top of the paper towel (this is where the "pressed" part of the pressed powder comes into play). Let it dry for about four hours, scrape off the excess if necessary, and viola. The result is a perfect Guerlain dupe for less than $10.

Overall, the process is a bit time consuming, but certainly worth the effort — especially since the finished product is so damn close looking to the original. To see the full step-by-step process, check out TheGoldenSmartie's viral post on Imgur here, and see more of our favorite DIY beauty projects below.